Severe shoulder pain when waking up

[Mont Blanc]

For the last few weeks I’ve been suffering quite severe pain in my shoulder when waking up.

Sometimes the pain starts in the middle of the night and is so pervasive that it wakes me up.

It seems to be brought on by my shoulder getting cold, or sometimes I wake up and my arm is in an odd position above my head on the pillow, and I get an incredibly severe pain when I try to move my arm.

If it’s painful when I wake up, then I seem to spend most of the day in pain and barely able to lift or move my arm.

I’ve been using heat patches on it and a hot shower seems to help.

Any ideas on what this is?

Thanks

[Four Litre]

Before I even read your post I guessed you were sleeping with your arm above your head!

I have exactly the same problem. Bursa in shoulder which causes impingement when you raise it up. Get an ultrasound to be sure and it can usually be resolved by either physio / time or steroid injection.

Best of luck and keep that arm down!

[Mont Blanc]

Four Litre said:

Before I even read your post I guessed you were sleeping with your arm above your head!

I have exactly the same problem. Bursa in shoulder which causes impingement when you raise it up. Get an ultrasound to be sure and it can usually be resolved by either physio / time or steroid injection.

Best of luck and keep that arm down!

Thank you, that’s really useful to have some sort of internet diagnosis! At least I have a steer on what to do now.

It’s just weird that I must move my arm up and onto my pillow into a really hurry position whilst asleep.

Cheers.

[90CHPAXL]

Could well be Bursitis like I have. Theres a thread on this health matters sub forum a few pages back detailing my problems with it.

As mentioned, go ask for an ultrasound and see where it goes from there!

Best of luck!

[ozzuk]

Mine does this every few months, lots of stretching usually sorts it, or a trip to a decent physio. I think it's a nerve getting trapped.

[bigdom]

Mont Blanc said:

Any ideas on what this is?

How old is your mattress? I had something similar last year, replaced a very old mattress, the pain went away.

[gangzoom]

If you cannof lift your arm upwards/side ways and the pain is in the shoulder go and see your GP to see if you have a rotator cuff tear.

[Huzzah]

alicetaylor said:

I know how frustrating that is because I ignored myself for months and it just got worse. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with pain so sharp it felt like I'd dislocated something, and by the next day I couldn't even reach up to grab things from a cabinet.

This one sounds like a frozen shoulder.

[The_Doc]

So much guessing here.

Please go and see a healthcare professional. They will take a full history, examine you, maybe ask for supportive tests, and get you an answer.

I can think of three or four more things it could be, but I'm not going to guess them for you, it won't help.

[Phooey]

I agree, shoulders are complex things - it could be multiple things. My pain was in the front of my shoulder and down into the bicep - years of seeing physios, osteopaths, sports massage, icing, acupuncture etc and it turned out to be something that only an MRI and shoulder doc could 100% diagnose - the rotator cuff - which couldn't be treated fully by conservative treatment as it was a full tear - which don't heal and usually benefit from (last resort) surgery. My advice would be see a shoulder doc if you still have the pain after 2-3 months. Physios can only do so much, and not all physios are created equal.

[Mont Blanc]

alicetaylor said:

I know how frustrating that is because I ignored myself for months and it just got worse. I'd wake up in the middle of the night with pain so sharp it felt like I'd dislocated something, and by the next day I couldn't even reach up to grab things from a cabinet.

The GP cured my issue by giving me 2 weeks worth of Co-Codamol for the pain, and Naproxen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).

I also used lots of Voltarol gel and heat patches.

That was it really. It went away after about 7 days, but believe me, I was in absolute agony for those 7 days. Absolutely horrible.

Been totally fine since.

[Funk]

I've had issues with my left shoulder for a couple of weeks and it clicked the other day that I sleep on that side with my arm up under the pillow... At its worst, I can't even lift my arm out perpendicular to my body. After a few 'assisted' lifts it seems to ease and I can do it with only minor pain. Pretty sure it's isolated to the deltoid. I'm going to book a session with a physio and see whether that helps things. I think I move in my sleep, I don't fall asleep in that position...

[Bluevanman]

I sleep on my sides,I say sides because I turn over multiple times in the night. I started waking up with shoulder pain.After many months I did some research.I deduced my mattress was too hard , I bought a new mattress,a hybrid where there's 2 layers,a firm lower layer and a softer top layer.
Within a few days the pain had cleared up and hasn't returned .